India, Oct. 10 -- Recently, I booked a cab at night via an app, from Dwarka to Connaught Place. Finding the vehicle quite clean and well-maintained, I complimented the driver, Darshan Singh.

Singh smiled and told me that he had leased the car, and while the lessor had many such cars, he had accumulated a Rs.53,000 debt. I was surprised, since the platform (per ride) commission model had given way to a weekly subscription model, and fat commissions to the platform no longer needed to be paid.

"Business is not uniform," Singh explained. Recent traffic disruptions, such as route diversions due to the BRICS summit and the Kanwariya processions, had affected demand as people tended to avoid road travel, he said. "Besides, the subscription mo...